I recently saw a movie in which the bad guy was the good guy, and I wondered how well they were going to make it work. Aside from a few writerly nits, I thought it worked beautifully. “The Town” co-scripted, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, worked in every way. Going back to my last blog for just an instant, I could easily feel the authenticity in the story and that’s because Affleck created a story about a place he obviously knows and loves. Everything about the setting, dialogue, and characters rang true.
Okay, back to making the bad guy the good guy. The story involves a bank heist and the kidnapping of one victim. Instantly, in the first scene at the bank where the bad guy touches the victim’s trembling hand as she tries to open the safe and tells her they’re not going to hurt her, he becomes a tad more interesting. Not sympathetic yet, but my interest is sparked. As the story progresses, little by little, small, sympathetic actions are woven in, and with each piece of information, the bad guy becomes more sympathetic. In the end, we know he’s absolutely the bad guy, but we’re rooting for him anyway.
Later, I couldn’t help thinking how we’re called upon to do this all the time in our stories, but many times we miss the mark because we “try” to make the character sympathetic. What I mean is…the character shows no authentic emotion or sympathetic character traits until we decide to toss some in. In order to make our characters real, their emotions must be reflected in all parts of the character’s life, not just when he’s with the heroine…or when the heroine can see him doing something good. We must show the protagonists' relationships, in his emotions, in dialogue, narrative, action and in all points of view.
In the movie, the BG/GG hero had a push/pull relationship with a friend/partner in crime, a guy so tightly wound you could almost hear his nerve endings snap, crackle and pop. This dude was clearly not in control of his anger issues, and when the story showed the protagonist in conflict after his friend killed a guy, my immediate response was to question whether BG/GG really "was" a decent guy underneath in all. I would’ve ratted the bad friend out in a heartbeat. But as the dialogue between the two went on, more and more about their relationship was woven in…until I could easily understand...and empathize with the conflict the BG/GG was going through.
The movie confirmed for me the importance of weaving emotion into all parts of our protagonists' life. When we do that, the emotions feel real and natural. It isn’t only bad good guys that need sympathetic qualities, either. The good guys need them, too. No protagonist is sympathetic just because he/she is the hero of the story. And a great story without a sympathetic protagonist only goes so far. Readers are interested in interesting (sympathetic) people doing interesting things. Whether the protagonist is the good guy or the bad good guy, creating a sympathetic character allows the reader to relate emotionally, which creates empathy for the character and compells the reader turn the next page to see what happens to him. And that's what we as writers should always strive to do.
Interestingly enough.... “Infusing Emotion in Your Story” just happens to be the next class I’m teaching at Bootcamp for Novelists. Yeah, funny how that works, isn't it. :-) Some of the things we’re touching on in this class are:
Infusing your story with emotion
*Purpose
*Necessary Elements
*Know your character’s crucible
*The emotional journey – the character arc
*Emotions – Natural vs Forced.
*Different strokes for different folks.
*Emotion in scene & sequel
Techniques to infuse emotion
*Affective Memory
*Emotion in Dialogue
*Emotion in Narrative & Internal Monologue
*Emotion in Action
Emotional Checklist
I love teaching this class, so come join me and learn how to infuse your story with emotion! Classes begin October 3rd, so check them all out at http://www.bootcampfornovelists.com/.
Connie will be teaching the well-received "Punch Up Your Prose" as well as her exciting new clinic "Surviving Rewrites and Revisions" later in the month. These are classes everyone can benefit from, no matter what stage of your writing career.
And…last but not least, our Author Spotlight features the wonderful and talented guest author, Denise Domning, who will be giving you gobs of information on premise and theme in "How Socrates Can Help You Write a Romance.
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